It’s been another rollercoaster day for competitors in the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship, with just Eli Evans staying out of trouble to notch another Leg win and in doing so setting himself up solidly for a potentially sizable points haul.
Heat 1 winner Eli Evans in his Citroen DS3 R3.The dramas began almost immediately with Steve Mackenzie’s wretched run of luck continuing. “Probably only about three or four hundred metres in!” Steve said. “Just hit a dip, tipped the car on its nose and it’s made a real mess of the front. We limped through that one, not sure, have to see what the guys think when we get to the refuel.”
The Ford Fiesta driver would make it through the remainder of the day but at a dramatically reduced pace with a crushed intercooler and a leading radiator.
After securing a sensational podium finish on debut in Canberra, it was certainly a reversal of fortune for young Harry Bates, his Toyota Corolla grinding to a halt just eight hundred metres into Stage One.
“We lost drive and actually have since found out it was both drive shafts – disappointing for sure!” Harry explained.
In the lead Eli was quickest out of the blocks, clocking a stage time 3.1 seconds faster than brother Simon, Molly Taylor in third. And it all looked set to disappear for Eli on the very next stage when he cut a corner that he hadn’t marked during recce, sending his Citroen up onto two wheels and lucky to avoid a roll over.
Despite the near scare Eli managed to increase the lead over Simon, who simply said, “I’m really happy, the cars mint” at the stage finish of SS2.
Further down the order Tony Sullens and Adrian Coppin weren’t overly happy with how they’d each started the day in their Citroen’s. “A bit tentative, definitely more in the car,” said Tony. “It’s not right yet but I think it might come to me as the roads improve this afternoon.”
While Adrian, who has battled the effects of a flu added: “The times just not there, got to just settle in. Long way to go, probably just being a bit easy on the car.”
The day’s third stage, the 22.41km Speedie Contractors South, was where the dramas continued. First in trouble was Sullens, arriving at a deep-water crossing he significantly slowed his Citroen DS3 but it wasn’t to be enough as the engine ingested water and spluttered to a halt.
“We did everything right, went through nice and slow, but putt putt and the engine died. We cranked it, but eventually the starter motor broke free from its mount and that was it,” he exclaimed, his day over.
Molly Taylor / Bill Hayes, Renault Clio.Further up the road Simon Evans had the scare of his life. “Left hand over a crest and it was just heaps tighter than what I’d noted. My mistake, made a mistake during recce. When you’re committed to the notes and it tightens over crest you’re in trouble. In the end we only broke a driveshaft, it’s quite amazing, it could have been much, much, much worse!”
In the 4WD’s Mick Patton had opened a 19.3 second lead over Kent Lawrence by the end of the third stage and was feeling happy with his performance. “The car feels absolutely amazing. Got over the nerves of the jump-start yesterday on the Power Stage. It’s an endurance rally and I’ve just got to change the mindset, I’ve seen already too many guys with smashed bumpers.”
While third placed Mark Pedder was far less happy with his Peugeot 208 ‘Maxi’. Not only did the car have an intermittent engine misfire but the handling was far from ideal.
“I just can’t control the back of the car, it’s quite scary to drive, not sure what’s happened between the Power Stage and here,” commented Mark. “Then we hit a big mud puddle, it covered the screen and when I hit the wipers they worked but the water spray didn’t.”
With five stages completed, and drivers returning to the safety of service, Eli had opened a 37.8 second lead over Molly Taylor in second, with Adrian Coppin advancing consistently into third.
“I’m happy to be in the lead,” Eli stated. “The Citroen DS3 actually has a very low air intake, and any water deeper than twenty centimeters just gets scooped up, sucked in by the turbo and sent straight into the engine. I know Tony had a problem, and I probably did the same three or four times this morning.”
Apart from the concern with water crossings, Eli had also had a significant moment in the variable light conditions in the deep Queensland forests. “We just got caught out on a corner that I thought had finished. We couldn’t see because the windscreen was just pure glare, then it went into deep shadow and suddenly all I could see was green!”
“Luckily I got on the power, glanced a tree and kept going. We probably didn’t lose anytime at all, but we were very lucky!” he exclaimed.
In second Molly had been concerned by a persistently difficult gearshift linkage that was mainly effecting on her on road sections rather than in the stages. “We made a modification since Canberra to raise the engine and it’s caused some selection issues from the angle of the gearbox. It’s nothing major, just giving my arms a work out!” she laughed.
Having dropped almost seven minutes during the morning no one was happier to reach service than Steve Mackenzie, with his mechanics swinging into gear to make a hasty intercooler change.
“Just not enough time to fix everything,” Steve said. “We’ll change the intercooler so we at least have turbo boost, but the radiator will have to stay in until tonight. We’ll just have to keep topping it up with water.”
In the 4WD’s a gearbox stuck in third in the closing sections of the final stage before lunch saw Mick Patton drop from the lead down to fourth, promoting local Kent Lawrence into an unexpected leading position.
“We’re having a bit of a cracker actually, got out of the box nicely and we’ve managed to keep it there,” Kent beamed.
Returning to the forests for a repeat of the morning’s five stages, Eli was managing the pace from the front, setting a string of fastest stage times to slowly increase his lead over second placed Molly Taylor.
That was until Stage Eight when Molly and co-driver Bill Hayes detected a strange sound from the front of their Renault Clio. The pair quickly jumped out to find water pouring from the radiator.
“There was a really small split in a hose. We couldn’t fix it so Bill managed to disconnect the radiator fan and we had to run the rest of the afternoon making sure we didn’t overheat the car every time we’d stop,” Molly said.
The concern saw Molly drop almost six minutes, but only one place, down to third behind Adrian Coppin. “We’re actually lucky we even made it,” added Molly. “I owe a lot to Bill, he cut his hands up pretty good fixing things.”
With the gaps widening, and Eli clear out in front, it appeared as if positions would be held to the finish, until the very last stage conspired against Ashlea James who dropped from fourth to fifth with a sick engine in his VW Polo.
“We’ve got problems, partly from the water crossing, partly the tune,” said a harried James. “I’m confident we can fix it!”
For Eli Evans it was relief to make it back to service and end the day on top. “The problem in Queensland is if you drive flat out you won’t finish. I drove flat out and only just finished!” he smiled.
“I knew everyone was having dramas in the ARC, so I was actually pacing myself against some of the APRC guys like Mike Young and Subhan Aksa, unfortunately they picked their pace up this afternoon and I just couldn’t match them,” Eli added.
Second placed Adrian Coppin wasn’t overly thrilled with his performance during the day, but was happy with his overall position. “My driving has got to be fixed,” he said. “I just don’t have the confidence to push. The notes are perfect, Erin (Kelly, co-driver) is doing an amazing job, it’s just me.”
“The car wasn’t the best this morning, it was setup a bit hard and a bit scary to drive. It was better this afternoon, but you know we’re just keeping our nose clean and reminding myself this is an endurance Round and I need to take a steady approach.”
Third placed Molly was relived to get back and with expert hands chipping in, including Neal Bates and Darryl Bosh, Molly was confident her Renault would be back in fighting form for tomorrow’s second Leg.
“Obviously it was disappointing to drop a place, but we kept going and we’re still in the rally!” she said.
Despite his concerns with his Peugeot 208’s handling earlier in the day, and a last stage scare when it was spotted that fuel was dropping onto the road, Mark Pedder came through to claim the 4WD win by just 0.7 seconds from Kent Lawrence.
“A really tough day,” Mark sighed. “Ok, a good place in the end but damn it was hard work to get to the end in one piece!”
Mick Patton recovered from his gear selection issues, the team discovering the selector cables had sheared off and in replacing them cost the Canberra driver significant time penalties to finish third.
“I actually can’t complain, other than that problem it’s been a really good day!” Mick smiled.
In the Classics what started the day as a three horse race quickly became a one-horse trot by the day’s end, Clay Badenoch the sole survivor. “A decent day, even though I started a bit slow, I was a bit too tentative,” Clay commented.
“A real shame that Tony Quinn stopped on Stage Six, he had my measure on the opening two stages and we were having a really good battle even though I had a spin on the fifth stage. Another long day tomorrow, I’m looking forward to it.”
And finally in the Side-by-Side Rally Challenge Michael Guest managed to secure his first win for the new turbo-charged Can-Am Maverick, leading home arch rival Cody Crocker’s Polaris by almost one minute, Nathan Chivers Can-Am in third.
“We managed to win seven of the day’s eight stages, and the one we didn’t we’d actually cracked the exhaust which dropped all the turbo boost,” explained Guest. “Otherwise the Can-Am went like an absolute train!”
In the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship India’s Gurav Gill led home MRF Skoda team mate Pontus Tidemand by just 4.6 seconds, with Kiwi Mike Young over two minutes back in third. With drivers contesting both the APRC and ARC, Eli Evans sits fifth in the International standings, Mark Pedder seventh and Adrian Coppin eighth.
The International Rally of Queensland continues tomorrow with a further eight Special Stages before the champagne finish in Imbil.
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